It was a pretty cold morning but not the coldest I've ever experienced at Bryce.  Still, a winter storm had come through during the night, leaving angry clouds overhead.  Scattered rain and sleet was falling here and there, some of it targeting the three of us that were down the Sunset Point Trail a little ways.  But that's a good thing.  Bad weather makes for good photography.

It looked like it was going to be a good sunrise.  The  storm clouds were more to the west, still making their way eastward across the sky.  And to the east there was an opening where the rising sun could shine through.  It looked promising.

And indeed it was.  As if on queue, the clouds opened up just right and the sun came through, casting a warm glow on the hoodoos in front of us while much of the rest of Bryce remained in shadows.  But more than that, just before this image was captured we were treated to a booming clap of thunder.  There could be nothing more perfect when photographing Thor's hammer, the Norse god's instrument that creates the thunder.

There weren't any particular challenges processing this image.  The dynamic range was rather high so I shot the scene HDR.  Photomatix Pro was able to easily pull the dynamic range together.  From that point in the processing in Photoshop was unremarkable.

Thor's Hammer is one of the standard images you'll see from Bryce.  What makes this image unique is the weather conditions.  I was able to position the head of the hammer directly beneath the bright opening in the clouds and for me that gives it a special character.  Couple that with the fact that the shoot was punctuated rather boldly with a ear splitting clap of thunder and it becomes even more special.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.